Hamatora Epilogue: Nowhere
by TheRoseShadow21
Summary: Because there will always be somewhere called 'Nowhere'. Multi-generational epilogue fic, some NiceXHajime and RatioXChiyuu shipping, but that isn't the main focus of the story. One-shot, rated T to be safe.


**So, I was going to write out another prompt from 'Fuzzy and Contradictory'...and ended up with a few ideas to put into a Hamatora Epilogue instead. I love writing epilogue fics, and this one was pretty fun. And I wanted to explore/justify that extremely happy ending RE: Hamatora got. So I guess this is my early Christmas present to the fandom. **

**Merry Christmas, all. I hope you enjoy this. Please leave feedback!**

Life goes on, as they say. And that statement had never been truer for Yokohama in the wake of the chaos caused by Art, Momoka and the Freemums.

Police officers got to work quickly arresting the worst offenders. Doctors treated those who had been injured. Others organised clean-up operations for their neighbourhoods.

As for Nice, Hajime and the others-they focussed purely on fixing up Café Nowhere. Ratio still had his job as a doctor, and Hamatora Private Detectives were called upon to find missing items from time to time, but their project was to fix the place they had all come together. To bring things back to something resembling normal.

Of course, some things had changed. Nice had decided that Hajime would live with him and Murasaki from that point onwards, and Master didn't contest it. He'd had a feeling that something like that would have happened once the truth had come out. Hajime had grown as well-she seemed more contained, more sure of herself. It might have had something to do with remembering her past, but she seemed a little wiser, if sadder. But as long as she was with Nice, she seemed perfectly content.

Honey and Three had had to rescue a lot of orphaned children in the first few weeks after everything had calmed, and that had given them the idea to petition for changes to the way that Facultas was run. Their main concern was that children with potential Minimums who still had families were being separated from them, and this could have an adverse effect on society as well as the children as individuals. So they proposed that for children who still had families, their enrolment should be on an out-patient basis. And once they had decided that this was a cause worth fighting for, they fought fiercely. And, in a bizarre twist of events, Honey's father publicly supported them. Even if it was only because of their mentions of how their plans would be useful to society.

But there were some things that could not be fixed. Murasaki, for example, never got back his Minimum. He became fairly proficient in self-defence and handling a gun, but something which had once been innate to him had been stolen, irreversibly so. It was a stark reminder of everything that had happened, and Murasaki would not have been blamed if he wanted to seek revenge on Art, or just simply vowed to never forgive him. But he was not like that. He was angry about it, but chose instead to teach Nice how to cook for himself-and make him do some chores for once.

Because, life would always go on. Especially in Yokohama.

**…**

6 months and 3 weeks later, Café Nowhere was ready to be opened. To celebrate, Master and Koneko decided that they should hold a party, only for the 'members'.

So they did, and everybody came. Even Art, who had first been hospitalised for his injuries, then being sent to a psychiatric unit when his Minimum had helped him to recover. An emergency trial had decreed that Art's own actions had punished him, and that he wouldn't be a repeat offender. But, since he was clearly not sound of mind, to let him free wouldn't be right. So, he was sent to the psychiatric unit. The party was his second visit to the outside world, the first having been a visit to Skill's gravestone. Both had been earnt privileges. Everyone hoped that soon, he'd be able to leave, and begin to rebuild his life. Although it would be hard, as he'd been stripped of his right to work in the police force.

But on the day of the party, they didn't think about such things. Instead, they had fun. Everyone ate lots of food-almost enough to rival Hajime, as Murasaki pointed out. They played music out loud and tried to beat each other at various games. Theo, Rei and Koneko passed the camera around between them to take lots of pictures.

At one point, Birthday got up, and walked into the middle of the room.

"Well!" he declared. "I never thought I'd get to stand in the middle of Nowhere again!" Ratio face-palmed at his bad joke, but everyone laughed.

"Hear, hear!" Koneko said.

"Let's toast that." Three suggested. And so they did.

"Purple." Chiyuu commented as they did so.

"What, me or the colour?" Murasaki still had a hard time with Chiyuu's idiosyncratic way of communicating. Especially as his name was a colour.

"The colour." Ratio said. "Don't worry, you get used to it."

"You say that, but you got her straight away." Birthday pointed out, grinning slyly. Ratio went red.

"What are you implying?"

"Ah, nothing, nothing." Birthday grinned evilly, and Chiyuu laughed at both of them, although she went a little pink as well. Then, Birthday attempted to open another bottle of coke-and it exploded.

"Oh, not again!" Nice said, nearly splitting his sides with laughter. "You klutzes."

"If you don't watch it, that coke might end up on your head." Master pointed out. And sure enough, it did.

**…**

8 months later, and Art was officially released. He still had lots and lots of out-patient appointments to attend, but he was a free man. Upon his release, Nice made him the fourth member of Hamatora Private Detectives. But Art insisted on keeping himself in a restricted position at first; make sure he was still up for the job. So he had a lot of free time. Rei and Theo then took it upon themselves to 'adopt' Art. No-one was sure why they had done that, but it seemed to make all three of them happier, and more fulfilled.

A year after that, Ratio and Chiyuu came into Café Nowhere as normal, and wordlessly, Chiyuu held out her hand to show a ring on her finger to the others, at which everyone erupted with joy, and began planning the next big Café Nowhere celebration-a wedding. They also combined it with the mission of getting Chiyuu to use words other than colours, which was a project Birthday and Ratio had been working on anyway. But now, everyone chipped in, and made some progress.

This led to them getting a new member of their gang-Kou Yuuki, the son of the dressmaker who made Chiyuu's wedding dress. He was a handsome but lonely middle schooler who showed promise as a writer. When he overheard Chiyuu talking in a mix of common phrases and colours, he suggested to her that she should try to go backwards in her thinking-rather than thinking what colour the word was, think about what word the colour was. That simple, if weird suggestion endeared everyone to him immediately, and he was promptly given the label of group baby.

Which, of course, was usurped by the arrival of Ratio and Chiyuu's first son, Indigo, four years later. Two years after that, little brother Moss arrived. Not Kou minded.

"This is like a really big family." He observed one day after school. "And it's just going to keep getting bigger. I love it."

"So do I. Most of the time." Nice said, deadpan, winking at both Kou and Hajime. Kou laughed at him, and then turned to ask Theo about what it was like at university.

**…**

"Ah, a job well done, wouldn't you say?" Nice gestured to the man who was being led away by the police.

"We have to find the items Mrs Igawa wanted back though, remember?" Murasaki reminded him. Nice stretched, and yawned.

"I know, I know. Just, we got the dirtbag arrested, at last." Nice grinned, and Murasaki rolled his eyes and went into the house.

Nice went to follow him when Hajime tugged on his sleeve.

"This isn't Masahiro's house." She said.

"No, it isn't. So?"

"He was making a big fuss about us going through it for a place that isn't even his." Nice stared at Hajime.

"Now that is genius, Hajime-Chan. Where do you propose we start, hmm?"

"That outhouse." She walked towards it, with no hesitation. Nice followed, grinning to himself as he watched Hajime. It was hard to believe that she was 27 (and he 29) now. So many years had gone by. Hajime's hair was now just above chin-length and cut in what Honey called the 'Kaguya-hime cut'. It suited her, especially now she was taller.

"Nice-kun, stop staring at me." Hajime said suddenly, not bothering to turn around.

"I-I'm not!" Nice pretended to be offended. They reached the door of the outhouse.

"It's loc-"Hajime started to say.

"Shh!" Nice heard something from inside the outhouse. Then, he made his hand into a fist and punched through the door. Someone screamed. Infact, many people screamed.

"Hmm?" Hajime helped him get rid of the remains of the door, and then they peered into the dark room.

It took a moment for their eyes to focus, but they soon saw a sea of faces staring at them.

"A…are you letting us out?" one young voice asked eventually.

"Is he coming back?" another asked.

"Can we go home now? Can I see Mummy now?"

Question after question after question. The room filled up with both fear and hope. Nice rubbed his head. He hadn't expected Masahiro to be stashing girls as well as stolen heirlooms. But Hajime seemed to be handling them well, giving out sweets from her supply.

"Hajime-Chan, I'm going to make a phone call, get some help." She nodded at him briefly, and he stepped outside.

Then, he made two calls, the first of them to the police. The second, he was a bit hesitant about, but continued anyway.

"Hello, Art?"

"Ah, you've finished."

"Actually…no…we're going to be held up a bit longer. And I need you to come bring your voice to the police station."

"The police station?! What? Why?"

"I told you, we need your voice. And your face, as it happens."

"Nice, that doesn't make sense!"

"That prick's been kidnapping little girls and keeping them for fun. And even though you're 33, you still look like a fairy-tale prince."

The line went silent for a moment. And then Art sighed.

"Okay then. Will you meet me at the entrance?"

Nice knew why Art was asking, so he didn't say anything apart from "Yes. I'll see you there."

**…**

In total, it turned out that Masahiro had been keeping 22 girls, aged between the ages of 4 and 15 for about 4 years. They had been able to trace the families of all but three of these girls, and all these families were utterly grateful. Hamatora got a lot of money and recognition for their troubles, but they were just glad they'd managed to save the girls.

The three girls who didn't have families were 14, 7 and 4 years old, and looked a lot like they might be sisters-except that they weren't. They also refused to talk to most people, apart from Hajime-who found out that their names were Flame, Sanae and Laksha respectively. Social Services weren't sure what to do with them, because they couldn't separate them to get them fostered, and had no other way of tracing their identities.

But they formed a bond with Art, possibly because his long hair and his gentle voice made him look and sound like a 'fairy-tale prince'. Whatever the reason was, Art soon decided that the girls should live with him. When Theo found out, he adored the idea, and Rei became Art's most vocal supporter in helping him take care of the girls.

Of course, it wasn't easy. Flame was jumpy and super-vigilant. Sanae insisted on wearing long-sleeved outfits with trousers or tights, and wouldn't let go of the toy bunny a police officer had given her. Laksha had night terrors, and would hoard her food. All three of them were afraid of the dark. But Art had his own demons too, and he found that it helped him to relate to Flame, Sanae and Laksha. Whenever he wasn't sure what to do, he would be on the phone to Honey, who knew about looking after traumatised children, thanks to the work she did with Three.

And of course, the others at Café Nowhere were there to fill in and help out. So, in one way or another, they got through. And got better, little by little.

**…**

"Kou-Nii? Koneko-san? Master-san? Onee-Chan? I wrote a really good essay today!" As soon as Sanae had finished school, she had headed straight to Nowhere to show everyone her essay. She knew that not all of them would be there, so her best bet was to look for the people who ran the café. So she climbed on a bar stool, onto the counter and yelled in the general direction of the kitchen.

"Sanae, you're disturbing a customer." Sanae blinked and turned. Sure enough, her backpack was shoved in a bemused customer's face. She shifted and sat on the bar stool, hugging her bunny, Hifumi, close to her.

"Sorry, Mister Customer-san!" Then, she looked to see who had told her off.

"Oh, MuraMura!" Murasaki raised an eyebrow at the nickname. Two years on, and he was still unsure as to why Sanae had nicknamed _him_, and no-one else.

"Hello, Sanae. Where's Laksha? "

"Street Dance club, with Indy and Moss. Is everyone in the kitchen? Where are Nice-san and Hajime-san and Uncle Arthur? And everyone else."

"Art's at a doctor's appointment, Nice and Hajime are working on a case. Everyone else is at work. I think Honey volunteered to be a chaperone on a school trip. Oh, and yeah, they're all in the kitchen. As you can see, we are rather full today." That was another weird thing about the child. He had no idea where she had got the idea that 'Art' was short for 'Arthur'. Or why no amount of correcting could help that.

"Oh, Okay." Sanae looked disappointed.

"You said something about an essay?" Murasaki said, hoping to change the subject. Sanae lit up.

"Yeah." She sat Hifumi on the counter, took off her backpack and rifled through it. She eventually pulled out a couple of sheets of paper.

"Here! Sensei wanted us to write about our favourite place in the world, and why we like it."

"Okay, so where did you choose?"

"If you read it, MuraMura, you'll find out." Sanae grinned at him, her hazel eyes sparkling. Murasaki made a slightly annoyed noise, and read it. He was impressed. Sanae's handwriting was relatively neat for a nine-year-old, and she wrote maturely too.

"Oh, Sanae-Chan, you're back from school." Koneko came out, serving customers as she made her way to Sanae.

"I am!" Sanae grabbed Hifumi and hugged him gleefully.

"What's that you're reading, Murasaki-san?"

"Sanae's essay." He said, gruffly. "It's about this place." And it was one hell of an essay.

"Is it really?" Koneko looked at Sanae, who bounced on her barstool slightly.

"It is! It is!And Koneko-san, you should read it after MuraMura, okay? I got full marks for this!"

And Koneko did, studying the words thoughtfully. When she finished, she welled up.

"No, Koneko-san, why are you crying? Was it bad?" Sanae asked, alarmed. Koneko hugged the girl fiercely, using her free hand to wipe her eyes.

"Of course not. I'm just crying because this essay is so good. You really think Café Nowhere is the best place to be?"

"Yeah! You're all my family!"

Koneko let go of Sanae, and looked through the essay again.

"You know what; I think I'll stick this up, next to all the photographs. What do you think, Sanae-Chan?"

"Can I help?"

"Of course you can!"

Sanae practically exploded with joy as she picked Hifumi off the counter and skipped after Koneko. Murasaki couldn't help but chuckle.

**…**

Life continued to happen, for all of them.

Theo found a boyfriend. Rei got married. Kou found a girlfriend, but she ended up running off and leaving him with their 14-month-old, Mayumi.

Hamatora Private Detectives continued much as they always had. Aging didn't stop Nice from being unconventional or Hajime from being a glutton or Murasaki from trying to rein in the two of them. The difference was, Nice finally learnt to cook, and Murasaki had less work to do. Naturally, Nice's strength was in making hamburgers.

Koneko and Master eventually persuaded Flame to return to education, but as soon as she had finished her courses, she came straight back to Café Nowhere. As far as she was concerned, working there was her calling. As for Sanae and Laksha, they grew up and were both relatively happy in school. Eventually, Hifumi could be left behind on Sanae's bed without there being any trouble. Being almost the same age as Indigo and Moss, the four of them were rarely seen without each other. Ratio and Chiyuu even speculated that they could see Indigo and Laksha as a couple at some point in the future. And, naturally, they were proved right. All of which made Art very happy-it felt as if finally, he was able to do some good in the world.

Honey and Three continued to divide their time between their orphanages and fighting to change the way Facultas Academy worked. They had succeeded in making the place primarily out-patient, and were still fighting for more changes. They wanted to make sure that the things that had happened to those like Hajime didn't happen again. That people like Moral would not be able to work again. And as long as they lived, they vowed to carry on doing so.

Then, Rei announced she would be moving to America with her husband.

At first, there were protests. Oddly enough, not from Theo, but Rei had told him before anyone else, and so it hadn't been as much of a shock as it had been for the rest of them. But Rei found their reaction funny, and told them that just because she was moving away, the rest of them wouldn't fall apart. That and she intended to come back at least once a year. Once they had heard that, everyone settled down a little. After all, if they had all managed to come back to each other all those years before, they could withstand anything.

**…**

Even after all these years, the first thing Hajime would do is check that her hand was still holding on to Nice's.

_I crave you in the most innocent of forms._

She couldn't remember where that line had come from, whether it had been a poem or a song or something else, but she remembered coming across it back when they'd had to rebuild Café Nowhere. It was the perfect line to describe them-even back in the times she hadn't remembered who he was. Which made her feel bad sometimes, but it was all in the past, and she remembered now.

"Gaah, my phone is vibrating!" Hajime blinked. Nice had woken up, and was now searching his pyjama pockets for his mobile phone. She sat up and watched him with amusement.

"Why not just leave your phone on your bedside table?" she asked, the same way she did whenever this happened. Nice was about to answer her, but then he managed to find the phone.

"Hello?" There was a silence as Nice listened to the person at the other end. Hajime tried to listen in, but she couldn't make out the voice.

"Okay, Okay Koneko. We're coming." Nice looked serious, and even before he hung up, she knew what he was going to say.

**…**

The solicitor looked relieved to be leaving Café Nowhere.

"You're sure? Really? "

"Yes, yes. I'll be phoning later." Koneko said, looking tired and a little bit restrained in the dark clothes she had chosen to wear to the memorial service they had held for Master. But when the solicitor left, she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Was…was he scared of us?" Mayumi, the youngest of them, asked incredulously.

"Apparently, yes." Three, who was now the eldest of them, replied. "Koneko, is it really OK for him to do that?" he gestured to the envelope that held Master's will.

"Yeah, yeah. I kinda need to have a few more meetings, sort anything out." She opened the envelope, and everyone held their breath as they watched her read it.

"Well…this place has been left to Hajime-Chan and I."

"Ah, that would make sense." Nice said, tugging at his tie.

"Is there anything else on there? Like any last requests?" Flame asked.

"Uh…he's got all of us listed here, and said we should all be welcome here, no matter what happens to this place. Oh, and Nice-kun, any money you owe him for food doesn't need to be paid anymore."

That raised a few chuckles. In any other situation, Nice would have made a joke about how rich he now was, but he didn't.

"But what's going to become of Café Nowhere now?" Sanae almost wailed. Hifumi had come out of retirement when she had heard the news of Master's death from old age, and its ears poked out of her handbag.

"It'll keep going." Hajime said decisively. "I'll keep it running, with Koneko. Right, Koneko?"

"Well, of course!" Koneko said.

"I imagine Master-san would really like that, wouldn't he? " Theo said, wistfully.

"Of course he would!" Rei said. "You'd be dumb to think otherwise."

"Pearl, snow-white, clouds…." Chiyuu paused, trying to find the words. "This is our sanctuary." She eventually came up with.

"Too right!" Birthday declared. "This place won't close, not if we've got anything to do with it!"

"We'll all pitch in to help, if that is what is needed." Art said.

"So…that's settled then. You happy with this, Hajime-Chan?" Koneko checked.

She nodded.

"Café Nowhere will never die. Even when we all die, it will still be alive. "

They toasted that, knowing that it was more than a promise. It was a truth.

**…**

"When does Makoto-kun finish?" Aya asked Kotone as they stood outside the Minimum Centre.

"Soon, I think?" Kotone checked her watch. "Any minute now. We actually got here ear-Oh, Onii-Chan!"

Makoto had come out, and was now standing next to them.

"Hey there sis, Aya-Chan. Did I miss anything in Maths today?"

"I picked up an extra copy of the homework; I'll give it to you when we're at home." Kotone said. "Let's go."

They began walking.

"Makoto-kun, did you do anything new?"

In response, Makoto took out a packet of fruit gum, and chewed on a piece. Then, he held out his hand, and concentrated. Within a few seconds, coloured sparks shot out of his hand. After a little while longer, the sparks formed shapes-stars, hearts, lions and birds.

"The birds and lions are new." Makoto said as he closed his fist and ended the light show.

"It's…an unusual minimum. Not much good for anything other than parties." Aya said.

"Good thing Onii-Chan's such a party boy then!" Kotone teased.

"Yup, it's my dream to be an entertainer." They all laughed at the well-worn joke.

"Eeep!"

"Ashe! Are you OK?"

Aya, Makoto and Kotone stopped in their tracks, and looked down. They appeared to have bumped into an elementary-school girl, and now her brother-who looked to be the girl's twin-, was now glaring at them.

"Hey, little girl, I'm sorry!" Kotone helped the girl up. "My brother's such a klutz!"

"Hey, it was your fault too!" Makoto protested. "But yeah, sorry!"

The little girl brushed down her skirt, then adjusted the hair bows that held up her hair in two half-ponytails. She turned to her brother.

"I'm OK, Art." After one last glare at the three high-schoolers, he nodded.

"You sure that you're OK?" Aya asked. "How far do you have to go?"

"Oh, we're not going home yet!" the boy, Art, said. "We're going here!" He pointed to the building that they were in front of.

"Café...Nowhere?" Aya read.

"Isn't that English? Nowhere meaning, it isn't anywhere? What is this, some new-fangled café?"

"It isn't new!Or tangled!" the girl, Ashe protested. "Our mummy's aunt, Aunty Flame, runs it. And Kou-san, and Mayumi-san, and Aunt Sanae, and Uncle MuraMura help too. Most of us help; actually. It belongs to all of us!"

"Yep. It's been around since our dad's grandma was a young artist. And it was where the detectives, Hamatora, used to work." Art said proudly. "I'm named after one of them!"

"Sounds…like a big family. " Makoto said eventually, speaking for all three of them. None of them were sure what to say to the fierce loyalty the children showed towards this café. They certainly didn't want to admit that they had no idea what 'Hamatora' was.

"We are. Not by blood, but we're an actual, big, family." Ashe said. Then she gave the high-schoolers a long, long look. Then she looked at Art, communicating something with him before turning back to them

"Do you want to come in and see? "

Makoto, Kotone and Aya looked at each other. Then, Kotone shrugged.

"Actually, yes. Yes, let's go to Nowhere."

**Wasn't sure about age differences and stuff, so I made them up. I also had trouble thinking of OC names that would fit Hamatora's naming system but wouldn't make me feel weird when writing them. Oh well. I think this story worked out pretty well anyway. What do you think?**


End file.
